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Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Speak out: Cha-Cha and women
By Lana Linaban
Gabriela
Ppresident Arroyo’s Charter change (Cha-Cha) will not solve the problems of Filipino women. It will only worsen the present degradation of Filipino women’s rights and welfare.
Women’s woes—due to lack of government programs for decent housing, just wages, livelihood, maternal health and nutrition, and protection from violence — will only be exacerbated by the thrusts of Cha-Cha.
Mrs. Arroyo, and her cohorts in ULAP and Sigaw ng Bayan, claim that Cha-Cha is needed to cure the nation’s crisis through reforms in the political and economic structures of the government, but this is pure lie.
Cha-cha is merely a self-serving move aimed at keeping Arroyo in Malacañang and consolidating her power against the Filipino people.
Cha-Cha undermines the country’s economic sovereignty and gives foreigners control over vital sectors of the Philippine economy. Thus, it will not provide us relief from spiraling prices of oil, food and other basic commodities, low wages and lack of social services. Instead, it will worsen the already dire situation of Filipino women and families brought about by these scourges.
It also poses grave threat to civil liberties and basic freedoms of the people. It will be used to silence us women who have been struggling against this regime’s burdens and repression for a long time.
Hardest blow
Cha-Cha practically cuts through all aspects, from economic to political and social, of Filipino women’s lives. It will only deliver the hardest blow against the welfare and interest of Filipino women. And the latest Social Weather Stations survey revealing that majority do not want Arroyo’s Cha-Cha reflects the voice of the Filipino women against it.
It should have been the general thrust of the Arroyo government to safeguard children, youths and women as vulnerable members of the Philippine society.
But Arroyo is no defender of women. Her anti-women stance, lack of concern for the plight of Filipino women and their families, and lack of effort to provide them protection has caused our sufferings.
Under Arroyo, a fourth of the population misses their meals while three-fourth live below poverty line. Women from basic sectors, where most Filipino women belong in, continue to receive minimal or no access to social services at all. Worst, women are also being victimized in the government’s terror campaign as many are killed or abducted.
There is no end to women’s woes except to put a stop to this anti-people and anti-women rule of Arroyo. And none of her tactics, such as Cha-Cha, will ever succeed.
We will mobilize the largest number of women on July 24 to shout: GMA, never to your Cha-Cha! Enough is enough! This is your last State of the Nation Address!
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 18, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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